TechTown is moving into a smaller downtown facility with a new CEO this year, but officials hope the move will put the innovative tech training program into closer connection with the rest of Chattanooga’s growing Gig economy in the Innovation District.
After serving nearly 5,300 students over the past two and a half years in the Lifestyle Center at 325 Market St, TechTown is preparing to move next month into the Edney Building at the hub of the downtown Innovation District at Market and 11th streets.
Chris Ramsey, a former BlueCross BlueShield manager and healthcare and tech consultant, was chosen this year to succeed Cordell Carter, who stepped down as TechTown CEO at the end of last year and now works with the Aspin Institute in Washington, D.C.
Ramsey said the new 8,000- square-foot office for TechTown will take the entire second floor in the 10-story Edney Building. But it is only a third of the 23,000-square-foot size space TechTown has leased for the past three years at 325 Market St.
“We’ll have a smaller space, but we’ll still have all of our key areas, including a videography studio, a robotics room and a kilobytes room for younger students,” Ramsey said. “We won’t have as many offices, but many times what we offer is being done at local schools and other places, rather than here at TechTown.”